The course of Karabakh process prompts a military solution, according to former NKR [Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] Defense Minister.

“Azerbaijan is a country which wants to have everything but give nothing. So, I see no peaceful solution to the problem,” Samvel Babayan told reporters in Yerevan.

“Armenia prepares for war but refrains from parading it, unlike Azerbaijan,” he said, adding that Baku will never venture a new war. “Azerbaijan knows that it can lose half of its territory in case it resumes hostilities.”

Asked whether Nagorno Karabakh may be re-engaged in the negotiation process, he said the OSCE Minsk Group does not even try to exert any kind of pressure on Baku in the issue. “Even if NKR rejoins talks, nothing will change. We should have signed a final package back in 1994,” he said.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 (when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was proclaimed) to 1994 (when a ceasefire was sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan). Most of Nagorno Karabakh and a security zone consisting of 7 regions is now under control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France, Russia and the United States. The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces.